Q: Are all Led Strips the same?

LED Strips are available everywhere and have become the tool of choice for most lighting designers. They are available in two options: colour changing (RGB/RGBW) or single colour and are usually used in coves. However, they can also be found on building exteriors as decorative lighting.

Since a lot of manufacturers today produce these, we need to focus on the selection of high quality products. Unfortunately, due to market competition, low quality LED strips are in abundance and we need to learn how to select and distinguish between different versions and their brightness levels.

As an example, some common confusion comes from a strip made with the SMD3528 led chip. Most people think that 3528 LED chips (or other versions) come from the same manufacturer, but this is not true.

We cannot claim that because two different suppliers offer LED strips with 3528 led chips, that they are of the same quality and brightness. This LED chip is made from lot of different manufacturers and everyone has its own specification, so we need to know the efficiency and lumen output of the chip and the way that this LED is driven. This is actually the reason why some versions of LED strips, using exactly the same 3528 LEDs (or other versions), might be of totally different brightness and quality. Another important factor is also the CRI (Colour Rendering Index) value of the chips used.